ATMs provide banking customers an ability to access bank account information, deposit funds and withdraw cash. ATMs may often obviate the need for a banking customer to consult a human clerk. Additionally, ATMs may be located in a variety of diverse locations remote from banking centers. For example, ATMs may be placed on street corners, in convenience stores, supermarkets or sports arenas.
In a typical ATM transaction, the customer may submit a request for a withdrawal of an amount of cash. The ATM may determine whether the customer has a bank account balance corresponding to, at least, a value of the requested funds. If the customer has sufficient bank account balance, the ATM may dispense the requested amount of cash.
The ATM may present the requested amount of cash to the customer. If the customer does not collect all of the dispensed cash, the ATM may be configured to retract uncollected cash. The ATM may be configured to wait for an expiration of a “time out” period before retracting cash.
An ATM customer may not retrieve all, or a portion of, dispensed cash as a result of an ATM malfunction. For example, the customer may submit a request for $80.00 in twenty-dollar notes and the ATM may erroneously dispense $40.00 in ten-dollar notes. As a further example, the ATM may not provide sufficient time for the customer to become aware that the cash has been dispensed. The ATM may retract cash before the customer has time to collect dispensed cash.
In response to a retraction of cash by the ATM, a customer may submit a mis-dispense claim. The customer may submit the mis-dispense claim to an operator of the ATM. The customer may submit the mis-dispense claim to an entity responsible for managing a bank account of the customer.
The customer may request a credit for uncollected cash retracted by the ATM. The customer may request that because cash was retracted by the ATM, the account of the customer should not be debited. The customer may allege that none or a portion of a requested amount of cash was collected by the customer.
A wide variety of ATM locations and lack of close supervision at an ATM increase a risk that a customer may submit an unwarranted mis-dispense claim. For example, the customer may intentionally collect only a portion of dispensed cash. The customer may then submit a mis-dispense claim alleging not to have collected any of the dispensed cash. Unwarranted mis-dispense claims have become so prevalent that some ATM operators have disabled a cash retraction feature of ATMs.
It would be desirable to provide a solution that determines an amount of cash retracted by an ATM following an unsuccessful customer withdrawal. The amount of cash retracted by the ATM may be associated with a transaction or series of transactions. The amount of cash may be associated with a customer or customer account. The retracted cash may be examined. Examination of the retracted cash may provide information useful in a processing of mis-dispense claims and fraud research.
Additionally, a requirement to replenish a cash supply of the ATM is a cost of operating an ATM or a network of ATMs. Typically, ATMs may be refilled in any interval between bi-weekly to a per day basis. Some ATMs in busy locations must be refilled twice a day. ATM operators may be reluctant to stock ATMs with additional cash because until the cash is dispensed from the ATM, the cash is idling, increasing an opportunity cost of the cash. Restricting the amount of cash that may be withdrawn by a customer may inconvenience and irritate the customer. Armored personnel and services are typically employed to deliver cash to an ATM, further increasing the cost of replenishing the cash supply of an ATM.
An examination of cash dispensed or retracted by an ATM may indicate that a cash inventory of the ATM is not being efficiently utilized. Obtaining accurate information relating to cash dispensing or retracting may allow an ATM operator to better manage a cash inventory of an ATM or network of ATMs.
For example, an ability to examine cash prior to dispensing the cash may verify that genuine notes of the correct denomination are being dispensed from the ATM. The examination may reduce a cost of dispensing counterfeit notes, non-currency items or incorrect denominations that may have been erroneously loaded into the ATM. Detection of an erroneous loading of cash into the ATM may identify a human error or a process breakdown related to cash inventory.
Therefore, it would be desirable to obtain detail associated with cash dispensed or retracted from an ATM. It would be desirable to obtain a transaction detail associated with cash dispensed or retracted from an ATM. The transaction detail may supply information used in managing cash supplied to an ATM.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for a purge-bin weighing scale.